State Sen. Susan Sosnowski recently met with officials from the Rhode Island Airport Corporations to discuss issues related to both the Block Island State Airport and the airport in Westerly. The meeting, which took place on Dec. 10, was a followup to a meeting RIAC officials had with town representatives. At that meeting, Block Island officials expressed some dissatisfaction over the slow pace of an injunction that has prevented RIAC from trimming back trees on private property surrounding the airport in Westerly. Those trees are cutting back on available runway space.
“Basically, the meeting was about general aviation issues and marketing Rhode Island to help the airports,” said Sosnowski. She said she spoke to RIAC President and CEO Iftikhar Ahmad “at length about the Block Island situation and the Westerly Airport.”
While the meeting with RIAC officials on Block Island on Nov. 14 was initially meant to receive feedback on a new 10-year plan for the state’s general aviation airports, and to set a date for a town hall-like meeting on that plan, town officials pushed back by saying they wanted a faster resolution to the Westerly litigation. Town officials were dismayed
